Produce conveyers are used to move produce through automated scanning and sorting systems. Conventionally, produce conveyors in the form of belts, chains or rollers, are driven by gears, pulleys or wheels. These known devices are useful for moving the produce into position to be scanned for color and blemishes, and then sorted. Presently, conveying devices used in optical scanning equipment roll and position the produce during the scanning operations, to rotate the produce and improve the quality of the results obtained in the automated optical scanning systems. Optical scanning conveying devices separate the processed produce into a multiple of parallel lanes, independently scanning each lane. However, these known conveying devices fail to adequately expose all of the produce surfaces in each lane, especially for smaller and stemmed produce, as the produce is presented to an optical scanner. The exposure of the produce surface to the optical scanner can be limited by the stem of the produce, which impedes the unrestricted positioning of the produce on a conveyor or other produce carrier.
A produce rotating device is needed, that better presents and exposes stemmed produce in optical sorting systems. The present invention addresses this need with a roller system for sorting produce. The following is a disclosure of the present invention that will be understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Reference characters included in the above drawings indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views, as discussed herein. The description herein illustrates one preferred embodiment of the invention, in one form, and the description herein is not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in any manner. It should be understood that the above listed figures are not necessarily to scale and that the embodiments are sometimes illustrated by fragmentary views, graphic symbols, diagrammatic or schematic representations, and phantom lines. Details that are not necessary for an understanding of the present invention by one skilled in the technology of the invention, or render other details difficult to perceive, may have been omitted.